Never gonna run around and desert you…

As someone who follows the ups and downs of political culture as closely as I can stomach, I have no illusions about the basic smarmy toxicity of the whole sordid realm. If you pay close enough attention for long enough, it will eventually appear that practically everyone involved in politics will have said, done, or been associated with something dastardly, dishonest, or just plain awful. Moral hazard is the regular state of things. Unless you’re an active party operative entirely prepared to subject yourself to Manchurian-Candidate-level indoctrination and spectacular doublethink for a measly paycheck and a tiny draught of sweet, cold power, then you must ultimately choose the lesser of multiple evils when considering political loyalties, and you must do so with full and complete cynical awareness of the compromise. The political world is rife with leeching, grasping, dissembling troglodytes who praise Democracy’s wall hangings while they micturate on its living room rug; smug empty suits with all the spirit of a used Chevy and, vitally, the sense of humour of a bibulous accountant.

Which is why something like this is so refreshing:

This is indeed what it seems. A member of the Oregon State Legislature cleverly convinced fellow House members to slip lyrics from the Internet’s most infamous anthem into their recorded floor statements and then edited them together for a now-viral video. The full story is here. Only, it should be said, in Oregon. Although if anyone spots, say, a Washington State House member going on about how they’ve “gotta get down on Friday”, we should all know what to expect in good time.